Believing

Trusting God, having confidence in God’s faithfulness, and relying on God’s goodness as we grow in faith.

For Christians, Jesus encourages us to “believe” in the transforming love he shares with God. “What we believe” about Jesus is less influential than “how we believe” Jesus inspires us to live God’s love every day. At OUC, we take believing seriously.

BELIEVING IN FAITHFUL RELATIONSHIPS

I’ve chosen this reading from the 1st Letter of John to help highlight the central place of believing in the lives of followers of Jesus, back in the 1st Century and with you and me here today. As you will hear, believing and loving have a deep and abiding connection, which has the power to transform everyday living. Notice how God’s loving animates our own, and inspires our faithfulness to God and to each other. Like loving, believing makes a difference in how we approach every situation and circumstance we encounter.

From chapter 4 in 1st John:

410 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

This thought is continued later in the letter:

51 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Over the past five years here at Orleans United, we have embraced a simple message as a way of describing our faith community and encouraging each other in our faith journey: Believe. Belong. Become. Over the next three Sundays we’ll take a closer look at what’s at the heart of these words, beginning today with Believe.So I invite you to turn with me to page 918 in Voices United and stand as we read together our best known United Church belief statement, A New Creed:

We are not alone, we live in God’s world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us.
We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.

This way of talking about BELIEVING has warmed my heart for many years, long before we moved to Ottawa and I became a United Church minister. I first encountered A New Creed in 1974 while serving a Moravian congregation in Edmonton, and was humbled by its simple, inclusive, and relational way of claiming faith in God. It’s been my main way to express Christian belief with others ever since. And I’m deeply grateful to the United Church of Canada for that gift.

Believing is at the heart of who we are as followers of Jesus. And I’ve grown to realize over my lifetime that “how we believe” as followers of Jesus is more empowering and inspiring than “what we believe.” That may be why I appreciate A New Creed so much.

I’m reminded of an old Yiddish poem that I heard in my youth and have kept near me through all these years:

If your outlook on life has changed … this is not the main thing.

If you feel like laughing at old dreams … this is not the main thing.

If you recall errors of which you are ashamed … this is not the main thing.

Even if you know that what you are doing now you will regret some other time …

this is not the main thing.

But beware lightheartedly to conclude from this

that there is no such thing as the main thing …

this is the main thing.

How we believe comes close to what I imagine the main thing is.

A quick review of the word, believe may be helpful here. Many linguistic scholars recognize that the ancient roots of the second half of this word – the “lieve” part – is closely connected to love. To believe is to be-love, to embrace the subject of your focus with a tenderness and affection, which expands believing from a mental process to an expression of the heart. Believing and loving have a deep and abiding connection, which has the power to transform our everyday living, to give us meaning and purpose. This is what I recognize in our Bible reading today:

that love begins with God … not with us; God loves us, so we are capable of loving God and each other.

that God’s love, as expressed in human form, is self-sacrificing and unconditional … experienced clearly in Jesus, whom we call God’s Son.

that Jesus’ loving Spirit lives on with those who believe and trust that God’s love, which he demonstrated, is available to all.

that trusting Jesus, as God’s human expression of love, transforms our lives and empowers us to follow his example and love all of God’s children.

that by believing Jesus, the One we follow, God’s love will overcome the world through our loving.

I realize that others read these words and focus attention on things:

… like Jesus being the only Son of God sent to earth expressly to die in order to save us from our sins.

… like God is only with those who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.

… like believing in Jesus is the only way to be saved.

And those ideas are clearly there in what we read today. I’m not denying them or rejecting anyone who professes belief in them. I’m simply cautioning all of us to be aware of turning our specific Christian ideas into a spiritual test for those who may not see faith in the same way. I’m encouraging all of us to resist the temptation of rejecting others simply because they don’t believe exactly what we do. And I’m supporting a broader understanding of believing that focuses on loving relationships, the kind that God inspires.

I posed a question to the Men’s Breakfast group this past week:

What’s the difference between believing in an idea (proposition) and believing in a person? What’s the difference in believing the idea that Jesus is the only Son of God, and simply believing Jesus? It dawned on me that when you believe another, you demonstrate a trust, a confidence, a hope that the person will live in a way that inspires love and courage. That’s who Jesus is for me, the One I believe and follow. And regardless of what I may believe about Jesus, I choose to trust his Spirit, living among us here and now, and continuing to inspire us in loving relationships.

It’s this Spirit-awareness that encourages me, because I realize it’s God who trusts us to live faithfully, lovingly, and compassionately with each other. It’s what inspired Jesus, and what will always inspire Jesus’ followers. God believes in you, in me, in every human being. God entrusts everyone with the goodness to transform relationships one by one, until the whole world is saved. God believes in you, and through Jesus’ Spirit encourages each of you to believe in one another.

15 years ago I heard a pop song by Amanda Marshall on the car radio that made me do a double-take. Sometimes, in ways I least expect, I hear God’s voice as clear as s song on the radio. And when I hear it, I’m humbled to listen and believe.

Somewhere there’s a river looking for a stream.

Somewhere there’s a dreamer looking for a dream.

Somewhere there’s a drifter trying to find his way.

Somewhere someone’s waiting to hear somebody say:

I believe in you; I can’t even count the ways that I believe in you.

And all I want to do is help you to believe in you.

Somewhere someone’s reaching, trying to grab that ring.

Somewhere there’s a silent voice learning how to sing.

Some of us can’t move ahead; we’re paralyzed with fear.

And everybody’s listening ‘cause we all need to hear:

I believe in you; I can’t even count the ways that I believe in you.

And all I want to do is help you to believe in you.

I will hold you up; I will help you stand.

I will comfort you when you need a friend.

I will be the voice that’s calling out:

I believe in you; and there are just so many ways that I believe in you.

Baby, what else can I do but believe in you; believe in you.

All I want to know is you believe … believe in you.

In our Spiritual Values here at Orleans United we claim to Believe by trusting God, having confidence in God’s faithfulness, and relying on God’s goodness as we grow in faith. That we are capable of believing this way is because God believes in us, trusts in us, has confidence in us, and relies on us to spread goodness throughout the world. May this faith community continue to be known as a people who believe God as much as God believes in us.

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Welcome to Orleans United Church

At Orleans United Church we seek to be a place where people of all ages, stages, backgrounds, and traditions can come together to worship God and build community.

Worship takes place on Sunday mornings at 10 am, with nursery care and programs for our children and youth offered each week. We would be delighted to have you join us.

So bring a friend, invite a neighbour, spread the word – the Spirit is alive and at work at Orleans United Church this fall and we are excited about all that God has in store for us in the year to come!